Stephen A. Smith Picked Charmander As His Starter Pokemon Because They Have The Same Forehead

Stephen A. Smith‘s podcast has, increasingly, become a place where he can talk about stuff that would never make it onto ESPN. Whether that’s something fun, like the time he got into a screaming match with a caller about the movie Cars, or whether that’s something like the time he expressed his distaste for Jason Whitlock, Smith (or, probably more accurately, his producers) use the pod as an opportunity to expand his horizons far beyond the stuff we see on television every day.

Here’s our latest example of this, which doubles as an opportunity to learn his answer to one of the defining questions of my lifetime. Smith wanted questions from listeners, so he got asked a simple one: Who ya got?

This ended up making its way onto the show, with Smith making very clear he is not an especially big Pokemon fan. His pronunciations of “Bulbasaur” and “Charmander,” in particular, are magical, and eventually, he picks Charmander for a simple reason.

“Know what I’m gonna say? Charmander,” Smith said after pronouncing “Charmander” like the word commander. “That’s who I would take. Cause it reminds me of me because of the forehead.”

Smith then stared directly into the camera while we got a split screen of him and Charmander. It was all pretty good.